Contents

Baerbel Johnson

The Beginning

I was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and grew up in the neighboring city of Offenbach. In August 1974 I came to the United States to further my education.Soon after getting settled in beautiful Provo, Utah, I decided to get busy researching my family history. Armed with photocopies of pages from my grandparents' family book I made my first visit to the Family History LIbrary in Salt Lake City , then housed in the West Wing of the LDS Church Office Building. At that time the only record I could find for my family was the baptismal entry of my great-greatgrandfather Nikolaus Markert, born in 1809 in Boeddiger, Hessen-Nassau,Prussia. However, I couldn't read even one word of the old Gothic handwriting! Eventually I took the record to the reference counter for interpretation. When I expressed my frustration with "I can't read this!", the consultant replied: "Then you'll learn, won't you?"'

Learning the Trade

So I began to learn by studying photocopies from the Boeddiger parish register until I was able to read most standard birth, marriage, and death entries. This process took about a year of Sunday afternoons, even with fluent German readng skills! It shows the truth of the old adage "If I can, you can too...". Bitten by the genealogy bug, I then took every genealogy class she could at BYU and learned practical research skills by working for a professional research service housed on campus at the time. After a mission to Western Pennsylvania and two more years of college I finally graduated from BYU in April 1982 with degrees in sociology and Family and Local History Studies.

Finding my place

For several years I continued to research my own family history as a hobby and help others with their research while raising my children, until the time came to secure gainful employment once again. After working as a professional researcher from 1992 to 1996 I accepted a position as reference consultant on the International floor of the Family History Library. I have a passion for solving research problems and try to encourage patrons to learn all they can about their ancestral families and the world in which they lived. I also enjoy teaching in the Family History Library and at various family history conferences. In my spare time, I sing with the German Chorus Harmonie, crochet pot holders, and enjoy Sunday afternoon dinners with my three children.

Exciting News!

In family history we are all learning about new sources and research strategies all the time. Last week I learned the several Czech state archives are currently in the process of putting their church records on the Internet. [For more information, see the Portal:Czech_Republic Czech Republic portal My great-grandfather Moritz Klemisch was born in "Kostel near Vienna", in 1858. Some twenty years later I had finally figured out that this place is actually "Maehrisch Podivin", now Podivin, Moravia, Czech Republic. The records are in the Brno archive, which has been putting records online. So I decided to register and check the list of available parishes. A wonderful surprise: the baptisms and marriage for Podivin are available on the Internet. Ten minutes later I saw Moritz Klemisch's baptism record on the screen! The records include information about the parents of both mother and father of the child. I also found two siblings. One record included a notation stating that the parents had presented their marriage certificate to prove they were legally married. The marriage date and name of the parish in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria, were also included.